Swiss authorities said fire safety inspections had not been carried out since 2019 at the Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana, where a blaze during a New Year’s celebration killed 40 people and injured more than 100 others.
Investigators believe the fire began when sparkling candles placed atop Champagne bottles ignited after they came too close to the ceiling, according to AP’s report. Authorities are also examining whether soundproofing material on the ceiling complied with regulations and whether the candles were permitted for use in the bar.
The Valais region’s chief prosecutor said a criminal investigation has been opened into the bar’s managers. The managers are suspected of involuntary homicide, involuntary bodily harm and involuntarily causing a fire, the prosecutor said.
Regional rules in Valais call for annual fire safety inspections of buildings “accessible to the public,” with regional authorities saying the inspections are the responsibility of the municipality. On Tuesday, the Crans-Montana municipality said inspections of Le Constellation that included fire safety checks were carried out in 2016, 2018 and 2019, and that modifications had been requested, but that no issues with soundproofing measures had been raised.
Nicolas Féraud, head of Crans-Montana’s municipal government, said the local council discovered after consulting documents that “periodic checks were not carried out between 2020 and 2025.” He told a news conference, “We regret this bitterly,” and said it would be up to judicial authorities to determine what influence the lapsed checks may have had on the events that led to the fire.
Féraud said he could not immediately explain why safety inspections had not been conducted for such a long time. He added that in September of the prior year, an external expert had been asked to carry out a soundproofing analysis and had concluded that the bar complied with anti-noise rules, without making further remarks.
The fire broke out at about 1:30 a.m. on New Year’s Day, AP reported. Investigators said the severity of burns made it difficult to identify some victims, requiring families to provide DNA samples; they finished identifying the 40 dead on Sunday and said Monday that all 116 injured people had been identified.
In parallel, the Paris prosecutor’s office announced it was opening a probe to assist the Swiss investigation and make it easier for families of French victims to communicate with investigators. AP reported that nine French citizens were killed, the youngest was 14, and 23 were injured.
Féraud said inspection reports that were conducted earlier had listed a maximum capacity of 100 people on the bar’s ground floor and 100 in its basement. It remained unclear how many people were in Le Constellation when the blaze broke out, investigators said, adding that it may never be known.
The municipality said the bar’s owner obtained a permit to build a veranda in 2015 and also carried out interior work that did not require a permit. It said it has now decided to ban the use of fireworks indoors and commission an external agency to carry out inspections of such establishments.
John Leicester in Paris contributed to this report.